6375 W. Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89146 | +1-702-6517324 | Obscure_whiteley
A great way to learn how science works
SciNight Contact
Chelsey McKenna
North Las Vegas, S221-E
NLVS221
(702) 651-4390 | Obscure_mckenna
What is It?
The SciNight Journal Club is an open forum in which students and faculty can meet to informally discuss primary scientific research articles.
During the Fall 2019 semester, the journal club will meet every other Thursdays at 7:30pm on the North Las Vegas campus in room N216.
Campus map.
Format and Categories
Each SciNight session the article to be discussed will be posted on this website below. Download the article, read it, and come ready to discuss what you have learned with your fellow students and various faculty.
The articles will come from different disciplines within the sciences to address a variety of research interests here at CSN. The general topic of each session will be one of the following:
Biological Sciences
First Meeting of the Month
Physical Sciences
Second Meeting of the Month
Fall 2019 Schedule
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| Sep 5 | Physical Science |
| Sep 19 | Biological Science |
| Oct 3 | Physical Science |
| Oct 17 | Biological Science |
| Nov 7 | Physical Science |
| Nov 21 | Biological Science |
| Dec 5 | Physical Science |
Upcoming Journal Articles
Upcoming Topics:
Sept 5
Full-spectrum white light: healthy in the daytime, a potent health risk at night.
Electric light, particularly at night, disrupts human circadian rhythmicity
Supplemental reading - Lighting for the human circadian clock
Past articles from this semester:
Sept 5
C-type asteroids are rich in organic compounds, including many of the precursors of life. Four and a half years ago the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, launched the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu. Its extremely complex mission: Travel to the asteroid. Obit and map it. Deploy four rovers. Land. Fire a projectile to collect a sample of surface material that's been exposed to space. Take off. Deploy a shaped-charge explosive to bore a deep hole. Back away. Deploy a camera to watch the explosion. Back farther away, behind the asteroid to dodge debris. Fire the explosive. Return. Map the new hole. It's done all this! Next up: Land and collect pristine sub-surface material exposed by the explosion. Take off again. Return to Earth, leaving December of this year and reaching Earth December of next year. Deploy a sample-return capsule to enter Earth's atmosphere and land in Australia while the main spacecraft goes on to another asteroid. We'll be looking at three brief papers detailing what we've learned so far. There's a summary page, " Traveling to the origins of the Solar System," accompanying the papers.
Sept 19
There are 200 million cases of malarial infections a year. With mosquitoes becoming more resistant to insecticides, a new transgenic fungus genetically engineered with a spider venom gene has potential to help in this crisis. How did they make it? How effective is it? Will they be able to release it in the wild? Let's talk about it!
Transgenic Metarhizium rapidly kills mosquitoes in a malaria endemic region of Burkina Faso
Oct 3
Is the change in Las Vegas street lighting increasing our risk of West Nile Virus? Probably.
West Nile Virus and Nighttime Lighting
Oct 17 - One Book One College Event
After seeing how poorly scientists are trained at communicating, Alan Alda set out to make changes and give lessons inspired by improvisation and scientific research in the new One Book/ One College selection If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? We will talk about how using improvisational exercises, storytelling, and other techniques Alda was able to turn scientists into better communicators.
You can find the book at our CSN Library or purchase it from Amazon